Melanie Ruth Blatt (born 25 March 1975) is an English singer. She rose to fame in 1997 as a member of the girl group All Saints. The group have gained five UK number-one singles, two multi-platinum albums and two BRIT Awards, and have sold over 10 million records worldwide.
As a solo artist, Blatt released only two singles, "Do Me Wrong" (2003) and "See Me" (2005), and recorded an unreleased album on London Records. In 2013 and 2015, she was a judge on the television series The X Factor NZ.
Early life
Blatt was born at University College Hospital in the London Borough of Camden and is named after American folk singer Melanie Safka. She was born to a French mother, Hélène and a British Jewish father, David Blatt (author of the book Manchester United Ruined My Wife), whose ancestors were from Poland and Russia, and a younger sister named Jasmine. She was brought up in both the UK and France. In 1986, Blatt was diagnosed as having scoliosis. Since her parents were not satisfied with the treatment for the condition in the United Kingdom they decided to move to France, where a specialist inserted three metal rods in her back.
Blatt went to Fitzjohn's Primary School, where her musical talent was immediately noticed by the music teacher David Joyner, who encouraged her parents to send her to a stage school. In 1986, she attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, where she met Nicole Appleton. The two girls became best friends. During this period, Blatt also played young Éponine in for six months, and was the understudy for Cosette together with fellow Sylvia Young student Denise van Outen.
Career
1993–2001: Career with All Saints
In 1993, Blatt sang under the name Melanie Guillaume in the band Drive with Julienne Davis. They released one single, "Curfew", together. She also did backing vocals for Dreadzone with Denise van Outen. Blatt's solo record was shelved in favour of the All Saints reunion.
2006–present: All Saints reunion and television
On 24 January 2006, it was announced that the band had reformed and signed a record deal with Parlophone. They subsequently began work on their third studio album, Studio 1. The first single, "Rock Steady" (released in November 2006), reached number three on the UK Singles Chart. Studio 1 entered the albums chart at number forty and sold 60,000 copies according to the BPI, being certified silver. A second single, "Chick Fit", failed to reach the top 200. Blatt discussed the reunion's failure in an interview with i-D magazine in 2012: "I don't think it was done for the right reasons... I know that I did it for the money. We got signed before we had even made music again, it wasn't like we felt we had something to give back to the world... we were given an opportunity and took it, without really thinking about it too hard". She also said she never felt comfortable with the success the band had and that "it was not necessarily the plan at the beginning; there was a lot of compromise involved".
From 2007–2010 Blatt worked as a presenter on the TV show The Hot Desk on ITV2 with co-hosts Nicole Appleton, Dave Berry, Emma Willis and Jayne Sharp. Between 2009 and 2010 she was as a reporter on Angela Griffin's show Angela and Friends. In January 2013 it was announced Melanie Blatt would join Daniel Bedingfield, Stan Walker and Ruby Frost as a judge/mentor on the New Zealand version of The X Factor: "I can't wait to see what kind of artists and voices we are going to find in New Zealand." Blatt mentored the Groups category. It was reported that she and her daughter Lilyella would live in the country for the duration of the series. In February 2013, Blatt revealed she is "making music" and when asked about a solo comeback she said she was going to do something she never thought in a million years she would do. On 11 September 2014 MediaWorks announced both Blatt and Stan Walker would return to judge the second season of the X Factor NZ alongside returning host Dominic Bowden. Blatt and Walker would be joined by new husband-wife duo Willy Moon and Natalia Kills until their sacking, and replaced by Natalie Bassingthwaite and Shelton Woolwright. Blatt mentored the Over 25s and placed 5th with her contestant Steve Broad.
In 2014, All Saints reformed to support the Backstreet Boys for five dates across the UK and Ireland in 2014. On 27 January 2016, it was confirmed that All Saints will release their fourth studio album, Red Flag, on 8 April 2016. The lead single from the album, "One Strike", preceded the album on 26 February 2016.
Personal life
In 1998 to 2006, Blatt was in a relationship with the former Jamiroquai bassist Stuart Zender. They had one child together, Lilyella, born on 20 November 1998.
Filmography
Television
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 2003
| Bo' Selecta!
| Various roles
| Episode: "Melanie Blatt and Craig David"
|-
| 2007–2010
| The Hot Desk
| Presenter
|
|-
| 2013–2015
|The X Factor New Zealand
| Judge
|
|-
|2022
|Celebrity Masterchef
| rowspan="3" |Contestant
|Finalist
|-
|2023
|Celebrity Race Across the World
|
|-
|2024
|Taskmaster
|"New Year Treat 2025" special
|-
|2025
|Girlbands Forever
|Contributor
|BBC documentary series
|}
Films
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Title
! Role
|-
| 2000
| Honest
| Jo Chase
|-
| 2001
| Dog Eat Dog
| Jany
|}
Discography
Singles
As main artist
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of singles, with selected chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:10em;" | Title
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Year
! scope="col" colspan="3" | Peak chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album
|-
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;"| UK<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;"| IRL<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;" | SCO<br />
|-
! scope="row"|
| 2003
| 18 || 36 || 25
| rowspan=2
|-
! scope="row"| "See Me"
| 2005
| 78 || — || 72
|-
| colspan="15" style="text-align:center; font-size:8pt;"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.
|}
As featured artist
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of singles, with selected chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:18em;" | Title
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Year
! scope="col" colspan="5" | Peak chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album
|-
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;"| UK<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;"| BEL<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;"| EUR<br>
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;"| IRL<br />